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On the Method of Selecting the Reference Operating Conditions for Valve

Plates Design in Axial Piston Pumps

Conference Paper · August 2015

DOI: 10.1109/FPM.2015.7337117

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2015 International Conference on Fluid Power and Mechatronics
On the Method of Selecting the Reference Operating
Conditions for Valve Plates Design in Axial Piston
Pumps
Jun Kai 1
Mechanical school
Harbin Institute of Technology，
Harbin, China
Beijing R&D Center
Shandong Changlin Machinery Group Co., Ltd.
Beijing, China
kaibj@163.com
Abstract—Axial Piston Pumps(APPs) have been widely used in
industrial and mobile applications. To improve the operation
performance, it is important to reduce pressure pulsations and
noise level of APPs. The present paper, by analyzing the actual
operating conditions in engineering point of view, proposes an
iteration method of finding the reference operating conditions for
designing valve plates in APPs with the overall best noise
reduction performance within the entire pump operating range.
The paper comes to conclusions that the noise level should be
evaluated in a statistic way instead of at a working point. The best
reference operating condition for valve plates design in APPs is
not the rated condition, it can be found by an iteration method
which will calculate a noise level index called the average pressure
difference.
Keywords—Axial piston pump, pressure pulsations, noise,
evaluation criteria, valve plate design, operating conditions, design
methodology.
I. INTRODUCTION
Axial Piston Pumps (APPs) have been widely used in
industrial and mobile hydraulics. Reducing noise in AP pumps
is always an important job of theoretical and practical
significance. Great research works had been done on the
subject. To get a better overall noise reduction performance, a
reference operating condition is required for valve plate design
in APPs. In the present paper, the past noise reduction works
are reviewed, then operating conditions of APPs are analyzed
in engineering point of view, a noise evaluation criteria is
suggested , a simple searching method is thereafter proposed to
find the reference operating conditions with best noise
reduction performance for designing valve plates. The method
provides a practical way for APPs design with a better overall
noise reduction performance.
1 Corresponding author
978-1-4799-8769-6/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
Ming Liu
Mechanical school
Harbin Institute of Technology
Harbin, China
Yongqiang Zhao
Mechanical school
Harbin Institute of Technology，
Harbin, China
II. BRIEF REVIEWS OF NOISE REDUCTION WORKS ON AP
PUMPS
The noise of APPs is an inherent defect caused by its
geometric structure. The main noises are Structure Borne
Noise (SBN) and Fluid Borne Noise (FBN). The pressure
pulsations in piston chambers result in mechanical vibrations
and thus making noise which is called structure borne noise
(SBN); FBN is caused by discharge flow ripples which can be
transformed into pressure pulsations and thereafter to cause the
vibration of down-stream components like joints, hoses, and
oil reservoir. Researches[1-2] have shown the real flow ripples
are much greater than that coming from theoretical analysis
which only includes geometrical ripple, the ripple caused by
oil compressibility is excluded. Oil cavitations and bubble
explosion are also noise sources besides SBN and FBN. To
reduce APPs noise, according to generating reasons, there are
two directions: ①reducing the amplitude of pressure
pulsations and rate of pressure change, ②blocking noise
transmission paths.
Normally, noise reduction methods can be divided into
passive control and active control. The passive control is of the
fixed noise reduction structure which cannot adapt to variable
operating conditions such as load pressures, shaft driven speed,
and displacement. Active control could adjust the structure
parameters by the change of pump’s operating conditions to
improve the overall noise performance within the entire
operating space. For the time being, the main passive control
methods have:
① Opening relief grooves between intake and discharge
ports, see Figure 1
231 August 5-7, 2015
Harbin, China

Fig. 1. A valve plate with pressure relief grooves.
② Manufacturing throttling orifices in the valve plate to
release oil bubbles in advance. See Figure 2.
Fig. 2. Valve plates without and with orifices
③ Re-rotating the geometrical center line of valve plate
some degrees to the geometrical center line of cylinder block to
obtain a pre-pressure angle (shift angle), see Figure 3.
Fig. 3. The shift angle α of a valve plate
④Using a Pre-Compression Volume (PCV) technology.
Both Bosch Rexroth [3] and Linde Hydraulics [4] utilized PCV
technology to reduce pressure pulsations effectively. See
Figure 4, 5, and 6.
Fig. 4. Rexroth A10VO 32 series pump with PCV.
232
Fig. 5. Linde Hydraulics HPR-02 pump with PCV.
Fig. 6. Comparison of noise level with and without PCV by Linde
⑤Using closed hollow pistons, d) type in Figure 7, to
reduce the residual oil volume.
Fig. 7. Different type’s piston
Passive methods are valid, simple, reliable and cheaper.
Because the designed structure is fixed, both relief grooves and
shift angle can only offer the best noise reduction performance
under a specific operating condition; for the rest operating
conditions, the noise reduction performance will be limited or
deducted. To getting a better noise reduction performance
within broader operating conditions, active control is invented.
The basic idea of the method is to change the noise reduction
structure simultaneously along with real-time operating
conditions. It is reviewed by Xu [5] that Beerman in
Sauer-Danfoss, Weingart in TU Dresden, K. A. Edge in Bath
University, and. Noah D. Manring in the University of
Missouri-Columbia proposed different solutions respectively to
regulate a changeable structure aiming to obtain a better
overall noise reduction performance. Active control methods
are still under investigations in labs, not available to
engineering applications for the time being.
Floating cup pump from INNAS reduces flow ripples
dramatically due to a new design structure. Compared to a
7-piston bent axial piston pump, the 24-piston pump has an
obviously reduction of pressure pulsations [6]. See Figure 8
and 9.
Fig. 8. Structure of a floating cup piston pump from INNAS
 V0  Ap R tan  (1  cos  ) dPp
ApV p  Q1  Qe  
 dt 

where：
Ap the area of piston chamber, m2；
Vp piston velocity, m/s；
Q1 flow rate which is going into/out of piston
Fig. 9. Pressure pulsation comparison of the floating cup pump VS. Bent chamber through relief groove, m3/s
axial pump Qe the total leakage flow rate including the
piston-cylinder block leakage and the
Kawasaki optimized K3V pumps by adding a small cylinder-valve plate leakage, m3/s
stiffened plate onto pump housing to block noise transmission V0 the left volume in the piston chamber when
and achieve a better performance [7]. See Figure10. piston is moving to the B.D.C position, m3
R the radius of the pitch circle which is
corresponding to the suction port and
discharge port circle, m
α swash plate angle, r
θ the rotation angle that piston chamber moving
along the pitch circle. The zero θ is on the +
Z coordinate axis, r
Pp the transient pressure in the piston chamber, Pa
Fig. 10. Kawasaki K3V pump with and without a stiffened plate (left, right) β the fluid bulk modulus, Pa
The piston displacement dp is
As passive control methods can’t cover the entire operating
conditions. A reasonable structure of valve plates play a =− ∙ ( 1 − ) (2)
critical role of reducing noise level。In order to achieve the
“best” noise reduction performance, here come questions: what Equation (2) indicates the piston displacement is dependent
reference operating conditions should be used for the initial upon the swash plate angle α and the piston locationθ. The
design of a valve plate? How to locate the reference operating piston velocity, from (2), is
conditions?
=− ∙ ∙ ∙ (3)
III. ON THE REFERENCE OPERATING CONDITIONS FOR A VALVE
PLATE DESIGN

A. The theoretical analysis of a valve plate design Where ω is input shaft speed, r/s. The flow going through
Figure 11 shows the general configuration of a swash plate the relief groove is of high Reynolds number, the flow rate is
piston pump. given by

2
Q1  KAw ( PL  Pp )  sgn( PL  Pp )
  

Where PL is the load pressure, K is the flow coefficient, and

Fig. 11. General configuration of the swash plate piston pump
Given a piston chamber is moving over one relief groove in
the shown rotation direction，the transient pressure in the
piston chamber obey the physical law：
Aw is the area of the relief groove, m2. Equation(1), (2)and (3)
show pressure pulsations are determined by ①the piston
movement，②the flow rate going into or going out of relief
grooves, which is affected by PL and Aw , the geometry
parameters of relief grooves；③the fluid bulk modulus β. For
designing a valve plate to reduce noise, the operating
conditions such as swash plate angleα, the shaft input speed ω,
and load pressure PL are required to selected first for the design
purpose. The condition is called the reference operating
conditions.
B. On the reference operating conditions for the structure
design of valve plates
There are few public lectures and patents on the general
principle of valve plate design especially on the reference
operating condition as the principle is the key know-how to
each manufacturer. Some researchers had mentioned the

233
principle very briefly such as Jean U. Thoma [8], Chenglie Na
[9], Ichikawa Tsuneo [10] and Xiangrong Zeng [11]. These
works either didn’t highlight the reference operating conditions
or analyzed relief groove design under a rated operating
condition. The rated condition, according to industrial standard
[12], is a condition by which a pump is running at rated
pressure, rated input speed and maximum displacement
simultaneously, given that adequate service life is ensured. By
the definition, the rated condition is actually the maximum
corner power point of a pump, which is an extreme condition
barely used in reality. More common operating conditions are
likely working at a constant power control model: either of
high pressure with a small displacement (small flow rate) or of
low pressure with a big displacement (big flow rate),
sometimes of middle pressure with middle displacement, see
Figure 12.
In the engineering point of view, selecting a pump for the
purpose of a system configuration, the rated pressure,
maximum input speed, and the maximum displacement of the
candidate pump are supposed to be some extent higher than the
designed maximum values respectively as the potential
pressure overshot in the system, components life, and system
efficiency had better to be well considered and balanced.
Above engineering practices indicate designing a valve plate at
the rated condition is not reasonable as the valve plate will not
suitable for the most operating conditions and the greater
overall pressure pulsations will be produced to result in
averagely more noise. As piston pumps are working essentially
in a constant power way, it is better to use the most applied
power point as the reference operating conditions for the valve
plate design.
To make the point more clear, taking Rexroth A4VG90
pump [13] as an example for clarification. The maximum
continuous operating speed of the pump is 3050 revolutions
per minute (rpm) and the rate pressure is 400 bar. The
maximum displacement is 90 cm3/rev and the theoretical
output rated power is 183 kw. In case the total efficiency is
0.93, the driven power at rated condition is then 196.8 kw,
which is the maximum corner power of A4VG 90 pump. The
entire available operating power range is covered in Fig. 3 by a
rectangle of 260.8 L/min (maximum output flow rate at
volumetric efficiency 0.95) times 400 bar (nominal pressure).
Fig. 12. Power curves and the corner power of Rexroth A4VG90 pump
As driven by diesel engines, the input speed of the mobile
application pump is normally around 2100 rpm. Given the
equivalent load pressure of the entire load cycle is about 280
234
-320 bar, the real power is then within the area from HP3 to
HP1 curve. In case the valve plate is designed at the maximum
corner power point 196.8 kw, the actual pressure and flow rate
is away from the point. The separation will then cause pressure
pulsations and noise. To the contrast, if the valve plate is
designed by HP2 curve, the actual operating pressure and
required flow are not far away the reference condition as
operating conditions are usually shifted within the range from
HP1 to HP3 curve. The reduced difference leads to lower down
the average total noise level over the entire operating range.
Taking into account of bearing life and efficiency, it is
recommended, based on engineering practices; the best
reference operating conditions for valve plate design is located
within the range from 0.65 times the maximum corner power
curve to 0.85 times the maximum corner power curve.
C. An iteration method to find the best reference operating
condition
Before further discussion, a criterion to evaluate the noise
performance under all the operating conditions should be set
up first. As SBN is resulted by the pressure pulsations and the
rate of pressure rise/drop generated in a pump, it is suggested
to pick up pressure difference (absolute value) to be the criteria.
The pressure difference is the load pressure at discharge port
minus the transient pressure in piston chambers when the
center of piston chamber is just touching to the edge of
discharge port from intake port side, for instance, along the
rotation direction. The criterion is simple: the less the pressure
difference is, the better the overall noise performance will be.
With the criterion, it is possible to find the best reference
operating condition with knowing the operating range (space).
The two actual cases are discussed next.
First case, the load cycle of the pump is already known. In
the case, each operating condition and their weight factor in the
entire load cycle could be listed. Here for example, within the
entire load cycle, there are 18 points are picked up, see Table 1.
For a valve plate like in Fig.1, assuming a piston chamber is
moving from intake port to discharge port. The ideal
performance of the designed relief groove is to make piston
chamber pressure PP equal to load pressure PL when the piston
chamber rotating to the edge of the discharge port. Taking case
6 as the reference design condition for example, then the relief
groove designed by case 6 will lead to pressure pulsations for
all the other cases. The pressure difference is stated as:
∆ = − (5)
The relief groove structure designed by the reference
design condition is called the reference designed structure.
With the structure and load data of each case, the difference
pressure − can be calculated or simulated for the rest
cases. The average weighted difference pressures (5) of all 17
cases are obtained by:
∆ . (6) =∑ × ∆ ⁄17 (6)
where:
Wi the weight factor for I case; no unit
 Δi the difference pressure − calculated at i case
with the reference design structure; pa
TABLE I. THE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS METHOD TO EVALUATE A VALVE
PLATE STRUCTURE
By treating each case in table 1 as the reference design
condition, repeating above design process and calculation,
the average weighted pressure values for each case: ∆ . (1),
∆ . (2), …, ∆ . (18), are obtained from the method and
the best reference condition is then coming out. Which is
corresponding to the minimum average weighted pressure and
the valve plate structure designed based on the condition will
be of the best overall noise deduction performance for the
entire operating conditions. The method is asking for knowing
the load cycle first. In the future, big data technology will take
responsibilities for accumulating load cycle data. By analyzing
huge load cycle data, the best reference point for valve plate
design could be determined more accurately and quickly. The
customized valve plate design will therefore become reality.
The second case, the load cycle is not known. Same as first
case, picking up enough cases from the operating space
starting from the curve of 0.65 times the maximum corner
power to the curve of 0.85 times the maximum corner power
such as the HP3 curve to HP1 curve shown in Fig.3., ignoring
the weight factor, calculating difference pressure by:
∆ . (6) =∑ ∆⁄ (7)
Comparing all the values of ∆ . (1), ∆ . (2), …,
∆ . ( ), the best point will be found, which is normally in
the middle of the selected operating space.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the above theoretical analysis and engineering
applications focused discussions, the following conclusions are
pointed out:
 The noise reduction performance should be evaluated
within the entire operating conditions, not just one
condition.
 The rated condition is not suitable for the valve plate
design.
235
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 The reference operating conditions for a valve plate
design in APPs is recommended to use a point within the
range from 0.65 times the maximum corner power curve
to 0.85 times the maximum corner power which is lower
than the maximum corner power curve of the pump.
 To find the best reference operating conditions for the
overall noise level, a statistical method could be used
even without knowing the load cycles.
 Taking advantages of big data technology, more accurate
and customized designs will be available in the future. This
also will be the trends of developing hydraulic
components.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The work presented in the paper is developed within the
framework of National High Technology Research and
Development Program of China. The author would like to
thank Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s
Republic of China for the financial support! The project is
conducted between the R&D Institute of High-End Equipment
of Shandong Changlin Machinery Group Co., Ltd (SCMG).
and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). Appreciations also
go to HIT and SCMG for providing a platform and kind
supports on the research.
The job is sponsored by Ministry of Science and
Technology of the People’s Republic of China with project No.
2014BAF08B00.
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Piston Pump,” Doctoral Dissertation, Zhe Jiang University, Hang Zhou,
China, 2009
[3] Gerhard Geerling and Markus G. Kliffken, “Product Innovations and
Development Trends in Mobile Hydraulics-Components, Systems and
Applications,” Bosch Rexroth International Mobile Hydraulic
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[4] Linde Hydraulics, “Product Catalog Drives - Linde Hydraulics,”
http://www.linde-hydraulics.us/downloads/Productcatalog_Linde_Hydra
ulics_EN_Web.pdf
[5] Xu Bing, Chen Yuan, “Current Researches and progress on Vibration
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and K5V pumps,” training materials, unpublished, June, 2007
[8] Jean U. Thoma, Modern Oilhydraulic Engineering.* National Defense
Industry Press, 1984
[9] Chenglie, Na, The Distribution Principle of Axial Piston Pumps with
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[10] Ichikawa Tsuneo and Akira Hibiya, Oilhydraulic Engineering.* National
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[11] X.R. Zeng, W.B. Ye, and P.R, Wu, Hydraulic Transmission.* National
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[12] Chinese Mechanical Industry Standard, Hydraulic Axial piston pumps,
JBT7043-2006
[13] Bosch Rexroth Data sheet, A4VG pump，Ra 92003/03.09.